The Riverton City Council has asked municipal staff to research funding options for improvements at City and Sunset parks.
Multiple community groups have approached the city in recent months expressing interest in possible additions to both parks, city staff said in a memo to the council last week.
“There was interest in adapting the tennis courts at City Park to pickleball courts,” the memo states. “Additionally, staff and council heard ideas accommodating roller derby at the City Park courts and converting the Sunset Park tennis courts to miniature soccer fields.”
Staff said they prepared “mockups” of each idea and presented the proposals to the public during a meeting in October, where attendees were asked to “place sticky notes on the improvements they would like” and “add suggestions” that weren’t already included in the presentation.
For City Park, city administrator Kyle Butterfield said pickleball courts “received the most interest … by far” from the public during that meeting.
There was “less feedback” about Sunset Park, he said, but people did express interest in improving the tennis courts there, converting the courts to accommodate pickleball, and improving the bathrooms in cooperation with the local Lions Club.
The city also received feedback from the public via a digital survey, he added.
“We’re looking now to the city council to see how you’d like to move forward,” Butterfield said, recommending a “holistic” approach that would allow the city to “really invest in the long-term success” of the parks.
There’s “nothing in the budget this year to move forward on any proposals” for park improvements, Butterfield noted, but the council does have some unobligated funds available that could be used to hire a consultant to “start moving forward and present you with something that would improve those recreational spaces.”
Councilmember Kristy Salisbury pointed out that the consultant’s work could be used to leverage additional funding for park improvements, and Butterfield agreed that “getting a design in place” would make the city’s application for potential future grants “much stronger.”
“It would be a good idea for us to do that,” Salisbury said. “I’d like to allocate that funding towards that design so it can move forward.”
For more information, call the City of Riverton at 856-2227.